{"id":574,"date":"2014-12-17T01:30:55","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T01:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/?p=574"},"modified":"2014-12-17T01:30:55","modified_gmt":"2014-12-17T01:30:55","slug":"lasting-gifts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2014\/12\/lasting-gifts.html","title":{"rendered":"Lasting Gifts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Well&#8230;the house is decorated. The cookies baked. The presents bought &#8211; and most already wrapped. Others mailed out. I remember when I treated wrapping as an art form &#8211; each was decorated to perfection &#8211; almost like Martha Stewart. Gone are those days&#8230;to much time and too much money. Now I find a bag at the Dollar Store and make do! Better yet, I reuse some from last year!<\/p>\n<p>I did try to bake bread for my neighbors next door&#8230;they turned out like bricks! You could build a wall with them! I clearly did something wrong!<\/p>\n<p>All part of Christmas&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>But in the midst of that I was reading 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17. It says, &#8220;May our (&#8220;who?&#8221;) Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, \u00a0(why?) who loved us and by his grace gave us (what?) eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That is a wonderful Christmas gift. It&#8217;ll last all season and into the New Year!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well&#8230;the house is decorated. The cookies baked. The presents bought &#8211; and most already wrapped. Others mailed out. I remember when I treated wrapping as an art form &#8211; each was decorated to perfection &#8211; almost like Martha Stewart. Gone are those days&#8230;to much time and too much money. Now I find a bag at&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14,8,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christmas","category-god","category-holidays","category-personal-thoughts"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lasting Gifts - Safe Place with Ruth Graham<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2014\/12\/lasting-gifts.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lasting Gifts - Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Well&#8230;the house is decorated. The cookies baked. The presents bought &#8211; and most already wrapped. Others mailed out. I remember when I treated wrapping as an art form &#8211; each was decorated to perfection &#8211; almost like Martha Stewart. Gone are those days&#8230;to much time and too much money. Now I find a bag at&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2014\/12\/lasting-gifts.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-17T01:30:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lasting Gifts - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2014\/12\/lasting-gifts.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lasting Gifts - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","og_description":"Well&#8230;the house is decorated. The cookies baked. 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No stranger to heartache, she seeks to provide a Biblical perspective to her journey of faith. She is warm and talks openly about her own need for a safe place as she journeyed through her husband\u2019s infidelities, her subsequent depression, her divorces, her teenage daughter\u2019s two unplanned pregnancies, another daughter\u2019s bulimia, her son\u2019s battle with drugs, grandson's special needs and returning to school at age 40. Although born into the \"famous\" Graham family Ruth did not feel she had a safe place to unburden the secrets of her life. She felt she had to project and image and wear a mask that she \"had it all together\". She had to meet others' expectations of her. It was not until a mid-life crisis did that she fully discover the unconditional love and grace of God. Her life's passion is to connect people to that same grace and love she found, no matter who they are or what sin. Ruth is an experienced conference speaker and Bible teacher. She has appeared on a variety of radio and television shows including: Good Morning, America, The Hour of Power, Focus on the Family, Moody Broadcasting, Fox &amp; Friends, CBN, Life Today and CNN. She has worked in publishing for over 14 years and is the founder of the Ruth Graham &amp; Friends Ministry. Ruth has three grown children and nine grandchildren. She lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. 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